Gift will underwrite museum's Balboa Park Centennial programming

Conrad Prebys and Debbie Turner have given the San Diego Museum of Art $1.5 million to help underwrite the museum’s 2014-2016 programming, including exhibitions planned for the 2015 celebration of the centennial of the 1915 Panama-California Exposition in Balboa Park.

“We are deeply moved by the tremendous support Conrad and Debbie have demonstrated for the programs we have planned,” said the museum’s director, Roxana Velásquez, in a statement. “The Museum has played a significant role in the history of Balboa Park, and we take our leadership in the Centennial Celebration very seriously. It is particularly meaningful to have individuals with Conrad and Debbie’s dedication and vision to serve as champions of our efforts.”

The cornerstone of the museum’s 2015 offerings will be “The Art of Music,” an exhibition including visual art, performance and music that will fill the museum’s temporary first floor galleries. The museum is now looking for local and national collaborators in what is expected to be the largest presentation the museum has initiated during Velásquez’s tenure.

The museum also plans on showing a traveling exhibition from Yale University in the summer of 2015, “Coney Island” (with 150 years of art inspired by the iconic amusement park).

In 2014, the museum is collaborating with the Meadows Museum and the Fundación MAPFRE (Madrid) in “Sorolla and America,” an exhibition featuring more than 100 works from various collections, including a substantial number from the Hispanic Society of America, a major repository of Sorolla’s work.

It will also exhibit “Picasso to Pollock” in 2014 and early 2015. The traveling show of 20th century American art is taken from the collection of the Albright-Knox Art Gallery in Buffalo.

Prebys has given millions of dollars to cultural, scientific, health and educational endeavors ranging from the San Diego Opera to Scripps Health. With Turner, Prebys was the “presenting sponsor” of Art Alive 2013, the museum’s primary fundraiser.